


Stanford-bound

by madders



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Universe, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2012-07-12
Updated: 2012-07-12
Packaged: 2017-11-09 20:18:16
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 600
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/457962
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/madders/pseuds/madders
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dean and Sam's life at Stanford.</p><p>Snippets of an AU where Dean chose to leave with Sam when he went to Stanford.</p><p>Disclaimer: I don't own Dean or Sam Winchester, and we all know that this didn't actually happen. Because Kripke is God, and this is not how it went in his story.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

It hurts more than anything he’s ever felt before, even losing Mom. He’d been too small then, too innocent to understand the concept of dead and gone forever.

It hadn’t taken long for the rest of that innocence to be lost too, ripped away by the nightmare that was their lives.

It had been okay though, because he had Sammy. Sammy needed him, needed to be looked after, needed Dean.

And Dean needed Sam just as much.

Still, as he watched Dad grow smaller in the mirror as he and Sam left for California, it felt like being ripped apart.

 

Sam never thought that Dean would say yes, would agree to leave their father and follow Sam to the normality of Palo Alto and Stanford.

But here they are, half way across the country from their father.

Sam’s not stupid. He knows how much it’s cost Dean to stand up to their father, leaving him to fight the darkness alone. Sam also knows that the Impala’s trunk’s fully stocked and he’s okay with that.

He doesn’t expect Dean to stop protecting them from the darkness altogether. But he’s going to make damn sure that it no longer defines their lives.


	2. Chapter 2

They’ve got weeks before they need to be in California. They amble along, heading places just because something about it amuses them. They find a funfair, and Dean wins the largest teddy known to man in a sideshow, which he then promptly gives to Sam- before pretending he doesn’t know him when Sam carries it around for the rest of the night.

But he doesn’t protest when Sam puts it in the backseat, swearing that it’s going to sit on the sofa in their new apartment. He’s too busy trying to wrap his head around the permanence of it all.

 

California’s nothing like they expected. It’s bright and loud in the way only California can be.  
Dean scoffs at Sam when he comes back with a two pairs of shorts, but he puts them on and heads to the beach, his eyes bulging the first time he sees the women in bikinis.

Sam has trouble dragging him away that evening, and then it’s only for a couple of hours before they’re back for a beachfront party that Dean somehow got them invited to.

But when Sam sees the carefree look on his brother’s face, he doesn’t really mind at all.

 

They make it to Stanford with a week to spare, and immediately start looking for an apartment.

Sam listens as Dean speaks to the landlords, until they find a place that they both fall in love with. Dean charms the little old lady who owns it, who knocks fifty off of the rent in return for Dean keeping her car running.

Once she’s gone, he turns back to find Dean, eyes closed, holding the keys so tightly his knuckles are white.

“This is ours,” Dean whispers, wonder in his voice. Sam just wraps his arms around him, holding on tight.

 

Dean’s a man on a mission. To fill the apartment with the least-expensive-yet-most-comfortable furniture he can find. He drags Sam from store to store, making him carry the bags as he rifles through the discount tubs looking for sheets and curtains and an honest-to-god tablecloth.

By the end of the day Sam’s exhausted, slumped on the sofa, leaning against the massive teddy sitting in the corner. Dean’s moving around the apartment, finding a place for everything. It’s on the tip of Sam’s tongue to call him Martha, but he can’t stand the thought of that glow fading from Dean’s eyes.


End file.
